REVIEW: Hail, Caesar! (12A) *

Movies AND TRAILER: Alicia Vikander on her action role in Tomb Raider

Writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen, who each have four Academy Awards and were nominees again this year, descend from the filmmaking firmament with a sickening thud.

Hail, Caesar!, the brothers’ screwball valentine to the golden age of 1950s Hollywood when studios nurtured, protected and controlled big name stars, is deeply disappointing.

It’s hard to believe that the mercurial siblings who gave us The Big Lebowski, Fargo, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and No Country For Old Men could be responsible for this flimsy whimsy.

Admittedly, there are a couple of stand-out musical sequences that quicken the pulse and remind us of the Coens’ genius.

These crescendos are put into the film’s trailer, which runs to a trim two and a half minutes, and is infinitely more enjoyable that the bloated 106-minute misfire that has been bolted together in the editing room.

As usual, the ensemble cast shimmers with comic talent, but here, almost everyone is squandered in thinly sketched roles.

Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) masterminds production at Capitol Pictures, keeping the tawdry secrets of his leading men and ladies out of rival gossip columns penned by twins Thora and Thessaly Thacker (Tilda Swinton).

He also has to massage egos on and off the set of the studio’s big budget epic, Hail, Caesar! – A Tale Of The Christ, starring matinee idol Baird Whitlock (George Clooney).

When a Communist group calling itself The Future kidnaps Baird, Eddie races against time to pay the 100,000 US dollar ransom and keep the abduction secret from the filmmaking community.